


Alex, Before and After

by orphan_account



Series: Stony Limits Cannot Hold Love Out [5]
Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F, Polyamory, Sibling Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-01
Updated: 2017-04-01
Packaged: 2018-10-13 19:04:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,561
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10519923
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Kara finally has someone outside of her relationship with Cat and Lena to talk to about the unique quirks of being in a polyamorous relationship: the sister who gave her a hard time about it when she started.





	

**Alex, Before**

Alex had mocked Kara when she explained her situation.  It was done lovingly, of course, and with that tone of underlying big-sisterly concern,  _ Are you sure you know what you’re getting into with this?   _ But there was no mistaking the fact that Alex Danvers, Recently Out Lesbian, thought she had a better handle on what was good for Kara than Kara did.

But Kara was stubborn, and was going to do what she was going to do.  And being in a relationship with both Lena Luthor and Cat Grant simultaneously, while it sounded insane to anyone who didn’t know the three of them very, very well, was what she was going to do.  “Look, Alex,” she explained, trying to stay patient, “we complete each other.  We overlap each other.  It wouldn’t work half as well if it was only two of us.  Any two.”

So Alex had shaken her head and tried to wrap her brain around the new normal.  She tolerated Maggie’s teasing:   _ Look at that, your sister comes out of the closet and turns into the lesbian Hugh Heffner!  Better get on the stick, Alex.  Bring us home a rich girl we can share! _

Maggie wasn’t serious of course.  Alex knew Maggie had had her share of “that” kind of fun, but they’d had a quick huddle after those jokes, just to make sure they were on the same page:  hot girls were hot, but they were in love with each other, and monogamy was the way to go.  Maybe it was an alien thing, it was easier to be wired to love more than one person at a time or something.  Alex didn’t know.  She just knew it wasn’t for her.  She couldn’t stand the thought of watching Maggie in bed with anyone else.   

And she couldn’t stand the thought of even kissing anyone but Maggie, truth be told.  Well, almost anyone.  But that other possibility had been sent to a starry grave, by her own hand no less.  There was nobody on this earth for her but Maggie.

She had to listen to a lot of fretting on the phone in the beginning, Kara mostly worrying about whether Cat and Lena would be able to fully embrace and trust each other enough to make it work, occasionally worrying whether they were better suited for each other than either of them was for her.  But mostly it was about wanting them to fall in love with each other, to love each other the way they each loved Kara.  After the first few phone calls, though, Alex knew it was wasted breath to try and steer her stubborn sister away from this idea.

Alex had met Cat Grant many times, and wasn’t particularly a fan.  But it had been a few years, and she had to admit that when she spent time with them, she seemed noticeably softer than memory rendered her.  She was still Cat; sarcastic, quick with a barb or a joke, but in the presence of Lena and Kara, her edges had blurred just a bit.  She showed caring for the two of them and seemed to enjoy their individual and collective attentions.  She smiled more than Alex remembered.

Shit, she thought.  If a situation like that could change someone like Cat Grant, maybe there was something to it.  

Not for her, of course.  No.  Just, in general.  For Kara.  For the three of them.  It was nice.  They understood each other, cared for each other, anticipated each other’s beats, each other’s needs.  It was kind of impressive, actually.  It was like watching a really good band play, one where the musicians had been playing together for ages and rehearsed like hell and knew without looking up, without even thinking about it, what the other people were going to do, what hits they were going to catch, what notes they were going to stab at, what point in the bar one of them was going to leave a little space for the other to do what they did.

It was nice for them.  But not for her.

  
  


********

  
  


**Alex, After**

“Okay.  You win.”

She heard the confusion in Kara’s voice.  “I do?  What do I win?  Anything good?”

“I don’t know.  I guess you can name your prize.”

“Okay.  A banana nut muffin from the L&L.  Why do I win this banana nut muffin?”

Alex sighed.  Things had been complicated since Astra’s unexpected return from what everyone had assumed was the dead.  She and Astra were yanked right back into each other’s gravity, and Maggie had struggled to keep faith, be kind and accepting of Astra’s presence, and vigilant with trusting Alex’s love but not trusting it too far because Astra was an unknown quantity.  But after a great deal of pushing and pulling, some sex that everyone initially regretted, and Maggie coming to terms with her own attraction to Astra, they had come to realize that they, much like Kara, Cat, and Lena, had a harmony amongst the three of them that surpassed what might have been between any two of them.

“You win it because Astra and Maggie … are into each other, and we’re a thing now.”

“A thing like Cat and Lena and me?”

Alex sighed again.  “Yes,” she admitted.

“Yoooooou…..”  Kara taunted, instantly becoming fourteen again.  “Yooooou gave me such shiiiiiiiit when I started this thing….”

“I know, I know, I know.”  Alex was embarrassed now.  She thought she knew what was right for Kara.  The thing was, she never expected Astra to return.  She never thought that Astra and Maggie would fit each other.  She never thought that on the other side of the messy pulling apart and pushing back together, there would be a life that the three of them could lead together; loving, bound as warriors, respectful of one another’s respective emotional and spiritual needs.  “I’m sorry.  I thought I was so smart, I thought I knew what was best for you, and now here I am.”

Kara gave a dry laugh.  “OK, well … you know … I don’t want to hear about what my aunt is like in bed with you two, okay?”

Alex laughed.  “No promises.”

“It’s nice, though, isn’t it?”  Kara pressed, suddenly excited because she had someone else to talk to who would understand the joys and peculiarities of this kind of relationship.  “There’s almost always someone to come home to, and when things get hard, there are two people to support you instead of one.  It lightens the burdens somehow, don’t you think?”

Alex laughed.  “Yeah.  I mean God, I’m a lot of work, you know?”  Her sobriety was still new and it was something carefully guarded by both of her lovers.

Kara laughed.  “Well, believe me, I am too.  Too much for one person, I think.”

“Yeah well, and apparently it takes two people to get you off,” Alex ribbed.

“Hey!” Kara protested.  “I bet Astra and Maggie have to tag out to deal with you when you’re PMSing.”

Alex laughed.  In truth, she actually was a little difficult when she was premenstrual and Maggie and Astra both knew it.  And so, having grown up in the bedroom next door to her, did Kara.

“The weird thing is, once we accepted the situation for what it was, nobody was jealous.  It just slipped into place.”

Kara nodded.  “It was different for us, since Cat and I had such a long history.  She was… a little possessive of me.  Scared I was going to decide Lena was all I needed and go running off.”  

“Astra loves Maggie’s vegan cooking.  Thank god, because I absolutely cannot go more than a few days without a burger.”

Kara smiled.  “Cat’s the best cook out of the three of us.  At least, she’s the healthiest.  I make a lot of stuff that tastes good but isn’t necessarily healthy.”

They fell quiet for a moment.  “Do you love them both the same?” Alex asked after a pause.

Kara paused.  “Honestly, that’s the wrong question.  I love them both  _ as much  _ as the other.  But I love them each differently.  And the way that they love each other is different from how either of them loves me.  I guess we’re just lucky it all fits.”

Alex nodded.  “I’m sorry,” she said after a long quiet.  “I didn’t take you seriously when you told me that this was the right thing for you.  I didn’t understand how three could work better than two, it just sounded like more work and I’m not great at that.”

Kara nodded.  “You sound like Cat.”

“Yeah,” Alex chuckled, “maybe she and I should form a support group for secular humanists in polyamorous relationships with Kryptonians.”

Kara laughed.  “Well, you should probably work on a catchier name for it.”

Alex had a lot of questions, suddenly, about Kara’s relationship, questions that she didn’t know enough to ask before.  They were good questions, things that Kara hadn’t thought of, even with all the oversharing the three of them had done in the course of strengthening their shared love.

But she was glad.  The Danvers sisters were once again able to look out for each other better than almost anyone on this planet or any other.

"You better hurry up with that muffin," she said after a long, liberating talk.  "And you better bring more than one."  
  
  



End file.
